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Saturday, 13 December 2014

Lately I have been putting together a home management binder in an attempt to make life feel less crazy! I have been toying with the idea of using a blog planner. I think I will give it a whirl!
This is my favorite template, but I will include a link for many more:

Find many more free templates here.
And, being that we are in the Holiday Season, I will include one of my favorite Christmas Songs! It's a classic.

Friday, 12 December 2014

I know I have not blogged in quite awhile. I am working on several projects right now, but they are all Christmas presents, so I won't post pictures :) I would love to have a blogger giveaway in the New Year, as a way of thanking my followers for their support and friendship over the past several years.
Don't be offended if I haven't been commenting on your blog posts. I think of my blogging friends often and with fondness.
Since I can't give you any pictures I will post a you tube video of one of my favorite Christmas Songs. Wishing you all a Happy Holiday Season.
XOXO

Sunday, 1 June 2014

A dollhouse that is! I've wanted to buy a 1:12 scale house for awhile, but I wanted it to be assembled. I enjoy decorating dollhouse interiors, not assembling dollhouses!

A couple of weeks ago I found this promising little property on kijiji. I'll decorate it fairly conventionally, a bit at a time, as I can afford to.

I know I promised everyone pictures of miniature baking. The final cake I was planning to include burned! I want to remake it sometime this week. Things have felt super busy lately since I started working as a part time nanny, taking care of twin baby girls who just turned three months old. I love my job, but it does wear me out some days. Here are some pictures of my new dollhouse.

Sunday, 11 May 2014

Lately I have been having a lot of fun playing with polymer clay. I can't wait to show you the miniature cakes I have been baking! But first I thought I would share some tips with you. Most of these tips came to me via my brilliant friend Pat, who is a crafster extrordinaire.

Lets start with:

Tools

Polymer Clay in a wide variety of colors (Fimo and Sculpey are two common brands)

Liquid Sculpey for making things like icing

Clear Polymer Clay Glue or Clear Tacky Glue

Texturing tools. These can be purchased at a craft store or be creative and use common household items like peppercorns!

Cheap Plastic Placemat

Pasta Maker

Roller

Small Plastic Bags

Shape Cutters

Chalk Pastels and small applicator brush

Cornstarch

Baby Wipes

Tips

Make sure your workspace and hands are as clean as you can get them before you begin. Any dust will show up in your work and we don't want that!

Work on a cheap plastic placemat, which protects your table and wipes down easily.

Keep Baby Wipes on hand to clean your hands as needed.

Keep a small jar of cornstarch on hand and frequently dust your hands with it. This makes the clay much more easy to work with.

Your clay will have to be softened considerably before you can work with it. A fast way to do this is to put the clay in a small bag and place it in your bra or under your armpit. Seriously! Leave it there for about five minutes.

Roll the clay out using the pasta maker to further soften it and to achieve the desired thickness

Use a small roller if you don't have a pasta maker.

Apply cornstarch to your hands to gently manipulate the clay and even out rough edges on your miniature creation.

Apply chalk pastels with a small brush to add color and realism.

Use clear polymer clay glue to attach embellishments to things like cakes. If you can't get your hands on some, let the baked miniature cake sit for about a day and attach decorations with clear tacky glue.

If you mess up, don't sweat it! You can always try again.

Remember that if you are storing your polymer clay in plastic drawers you must first put the clay in plastic wrap or a small plastic bag. Otherwise your clay will be ruined and degraded.

Tuesday, 15 April 2014

Last weekend I got together with my fabulous friend Pat for a mini play date. We decided it was time I tried my hand at miniature baking! I was pretty intimidated, but Pat is an excellent teacher and had all the supplies we needed: pasta maker for rolling out the clay, jillions of colors of clay, and tools galore.

Here is the strawberry fondant cake I made with lemon filling.

I also traded one of my shabby chic dressers for the greenleaf trailer kit. I want to learn to make smores for my trailer scene.